Nice image. The caption is unconvincing. One would not change social class from merchant to King to noble to Knight. One might go up & down within a social class, and have personal ups and downs, but there wasn't social mobility between social classes like that. A King might fall but he's not going to end up as a merchant. I think there must be a different message in the image.

I agree with you Debra.
Boethius is spoken to by PhilosophyThen she said: "Do you think that this world is run by accidental and irregular chance, or do you believe that somehow it is ruled by reason?"
"I could," said I, "by no means believe that what is so certain and predictable could be run by irregular chance; I know that God the Creator presides over His work; and the day will never come that I will abandon this judgment as untrue."

There is reason in God's plan for you to be where you are.

The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Thanks very much Marco (and yes, it really is nice to see you!). I appreciate it especially because I've come to form an opinion of Fortune as a "negative" force, and align her with inconstancy in Giotto, for instance, and therefore as a "vice". This is a really different take on her, and it makes me question how sound my earlier assumptions are.

cheers,
robert

The Tarot will lose all its vitality for one who allows himself to be side-tracked by its pedantry. - Aleister Crowley